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Structural Covariance in the Hard Sphere Fluid

Hard spheres are one of the simplest model of fluid. When the density is increased, the motion is slowed down and non-trivial local arrangements of particles characteristic of the liquid emerge. We call these local structural motifs.

In hard spheres, special role is played by structures with pentagonal rings, such as icosahedra or pentagonal pyramids.

In collaboration with Pierre Ronceray (Princeton), to appear on the Journal of Chemical Physics, we have shown that if we study the cross-correlations between the variation of populations of different motifs we can understand more of the phase behaviour of this model liquid: for example, we can predict its propensity to form more motifs of a given type if an external field is applied; or, we can understand and classify different motifs that coexist in the liquid phase.